Cadillac Cans Ultra-Luxury Flagship Sedan Project

A $100,000+ exotic sedan is apparently no longer in Cadillac’s cards.

Cadillac has shown plenty of extravagant show cars hinting at a range-topping flagship model, including the spectacular Sixteen concept car from the 2003 Detroit Auto Show and the Ciel convertible show car that debuted at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. However, according to a report from Automotive News, these plans have been scrapped.

AN says that Cadillac does still plan to develop a large, full-size, rear-drive luxury sedan to compete with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series based on a new, rear-wheel-drive platform called Omega. In fact, AN’s sources at GM cite these plans as a major reason for why an exotic flagship model is off the table. Apparently executives believed that a $100,000+ niche model would not be different enough than this large luxury sedan to justify the investment.

The Omega-platform sedan is expected to debut for the 2016 or 2017 model year. Currently, the XTS is at the top of Cadillac’s sedan range, but its front-wheel-drive chassis prevents it from truly competing in the full-size luxury sedan segment. We don’t know at this point whether the future Omega-platform sedan will replace the XTS or slot in above it, but there is room for both cars in Cadillac’s portfolio – the XTS is closer to the Lexus ES, Lincoln MKS, and Hyundai Azera, while the future big Caddy could target the Lexus LS, Hyundai Equus, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series, and so on.

One of AN’s sources, though, did say that Cadillac was considering other niche vehicles to fill out the lineup. Keep an eye out over the next few years, as Cadillac has said that it plans to introduce 10 new or redesigned models by mid-2015.

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